The government of Uzbekistan has approved a measure to triple the cost of electricity for cryptocurrency miners. The amendment to the laws regulating the consumption of electrical energy was reported on 11 December by the news website Spot (in Russian).
Irrespective of the capacity of their mining farms, miners will now pay three times more than ordinary consumers for their energy.
The amendment will come into force from March 2020. The Ministries of Energy and Finance have until this time to come up with a means of identifying miners and applying the higher tariff to them.
The Ministry of Energy’s plans to triple the cost of electricity for miners were announced in September. The agency explained that the country’s energy policy is part of a wider social welfare policy and that activities like cryptocurrency mining bear no relation to these aims.
Following the announcement, Uzbek miners recorded a video address to the country’s government, warning that the measure will greatly reduce the attractiveness of currency mining in the country, and suggested they could plant trees in return for government support and the legalisation of the industry.
